GROUSE 391 
Other peculiarities of the Red Grouse—the excellence of its 
flesh, and its economic importance, which is perhaps greater than 
that of any other wild bird in the world—hardly need notice here, 
and there is not space to dwell upon that dire malady to which it 
is from time to time subject, primarily induced, in the opinion of 
many, by the overstocking of its haunts and the propagation of 
diseased offspring by depauperized parents.1 
turn white differ in that respect from all other groups of the Family Tetraonide. 
Furthermore it must be remembered that every species of Lagopus (even L. 
leucurus, the whitest of all) has its first set of remiges coloured brown. These 
are dropped when the bird is about half-grown, and in all the species but Z. 
scoticus white remiges are then produced. If therefore, as is generally held, the 
successive phases assumed by any individual animal in the course of its progress 
to maturity indicate the phases through which the species has passed, there may 
have been a time when all the species of Lagopus wore a brown livery even when 
adult, and the white dress donned in winter has been imposed upon the wearers 
by causes that can be easily suggested, for it has been freely admitted by 
naturalists of all schools that the white plumage of the birds of this group 
protects them from danger during the snows of a protracted winter. On the 
other hand, it is not at all inconceivable that the Red Grouse, instead of perpetu- 
ating directly the more ancient properties of an original Lagopus that underwent 
no great seasonal change of plumage, may derive its ancestry from the widely- 
ranging Willow-Grouse, which in an epoch comparatively recent (in the geo- 
logical sense) may have stocked Britain, and left descendants that, under conditions 
in which the assumption of a white garb would be almost fatal to the preserva- 
tion of the species, have reverted (though doubtless with some modifications) 
to a comparative immutability essentially the same as that of the primal 
Lagopus. 
That Red Grouse, especially when in full winter-plumage—a fact of import in 
regard to what has just been said—are subject to greater variability than most 
species of birds has been proved by Mr. Buckley (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1882, pp. 112- 
116), and moreover that this variability does not wholly depend on locality as had 
been frequently surmised, for he found that birds differing most remarkably from 
each other occurred on the same ground or were at least near neighbours. 
Having seen his series of specimens, I can state that he has not exaggerated the 
variations they present, which are far greater than between those offered by some 
of the so-called local forms of Lagopus. On the other hand, a general uniformity 
seems to pervade Irish examples, as a large number submitted to me by Mr. 
A. G. More shews. Indeed Irish specimens could be picked out by the practised 
eye almost without fail from their plumage being duller and more snuff-coloured 
(if the phrase be allowable). This hue is occasionally seen in English birds, but 
not to my knowledge in Scottish, though I should not be surprised if it were to 
occur. Whether the fact, as I take it to be, can be correlated with the more 
equable climate which the sister-island enjoys, I do not pretend to say, but the 
consideration seems worthy of attention. Several varieties and hybrids are figured 
in Mr. Millais’s Game Birds and Shooting Sketches (London: 1892). 
1 On the Grouse-disease the papers of Prof. Young in Proc. Nat. Hist. Soe. 
Glasgow, i. p. 225, and Dr. Farquharson, Edinb. Med. Jowrnal, No. 263, p. 222, 
may be consulted ; but especially Dr. Klein’s Reports in The Field (23 July 1887 
and 15 June 1889, and his work on the subject (London: 1892). 
